my vtpo journey

A Tale of Two ConsolesMy interest in the theatre pipe organ commenced in the early 1960’s when Owen Jones introduced me to an LP recording of George Wright playing the San Francisco Fox. I was amazed. The first LP that I purchased in 1964 (at age 15) was “George Wright Plays George Gershwin” recorded on his famous Pasadena studio WurliTzer. I found that even more interesting and stimulating. The ‘studio’ sound of that highly prepared instrument combined with such an extraordinary level of musicianship became my benchmark.My virtual pipe organ journey began with two Conn organs, interspersed with one Thomas, and then four Rodgers Century 340 organs with one Olympic 333. With my last Rodgers 340 purchased in 2002, I began adding more analogue generators and separate voicing boards (both from broken up Rodgers 340’s). I also expanded the audio from 5 channels to 12 and added a new combination action built by John Andrews that increased the piston count to 45.

The 340 analogue sound was warm and had a life to it that I was scared to lose, given the often sterile, and lifeless sound of many commercial digital organs that I had encountered over the years. However, digital tuned percussions and traps were much more authentic than analogue, and so that was my first move – to replace these with digital. To achieve this required an interface system to MIDIfy my stops and keyboards without placing a load on the analogue voicing circuits, which could make the analogue ranks unusable.

After much research, experimenting with many systems, working and learning a great deal from electronics guru John Andrews, when Artisan released a new version of their input board for their new MicroMIDI system, I finally found a system, which could co-exist with the original analogue. MicoMIDI provided a very flexible, and reliable control and MIDI system. The Artisan support was highly responsive, creative, honest and smart. For my digital sampling engine I chose Gigastudio.

A year or so after the digital tuned percussions and traps replaced the analogue (2004), Cameron Simpson and John Giacchi converted their Rodgers 340 using Artisan’s MicroMIDI. They ran a complete VTPO with the German Kontakt sampling engine with samples that they had recorded. Meanwhile my friend in VTPO crime, Owen Jones, had purchased some Artisan sound engines, and had converted his Conn 651 consoled custom analogue VTPO completely to digital. Owen was also experimenting with Gigastudio. However, the sounds that John and Cam were achieving were the best we had heard from a digital instrument.

One of the merits of the VTPO community is the willingness to share expertise, and even sharing samples. One day, in the post, a couple of DVDs arrived. These included John and Cam’s raw samples. By “raw” I mean, they were unprocessed, and unlooped. Pristine. Such incredible generosity! As I was time poor due to caring for my late wife, Audrey, I prevailed upon my friend Owen to prepare, and loop most of these samples for me. I did what I could, and Owen did the rest. We used “Cam’s Secret Recipe for Sample Preparation”. Owen was able to build his own Gigastudio VTPO using these samples simultaneously as I built mine. It was incredibly satisfying work and we were able to assist each other even though we were 1700kms from each other! As I was losing someone I loved, I was building something I loved. Audrey was an uncritical supporter of my VTPO endeavours.

Carefully, one rank at a time, I swapped out the analogue for the sampled until the Rodgers 340 3/10 spec was fully digital running on Gigastudio 3 as the engine. That outcome represented my first digital VTPO.

Over the years another sampling engine, which was created, exclusively for pipe organ had been developing. I have owned that engine, Hauptwerk, since Version 1.00 (now 4.00). Jim Gallops has already mentioned in his article the history before Hauptwerk was ready for theatre organ tremulants. In 2006 we were all very encouraged by what Hauptwerk developer, Martin Dyde and sample set creator Brett Milan were delivering to the market. So much so that Neil Jensen decided to create his own sample sets.

First Neil released a 3/11, then a 3/19, a 3/27 and finally, a 3/35. Initially, I ran both my GS3 instrument and Neil’s. However the superiority of his sample sets convinced me turn off my GS3 instrument forever. Then, as Neil’s sets were released my VTPO kept on growing until the console was full! This occurred when the 3/19 was released. The Rodgers console required a rebuild and expansion.

As my theatre organ performance experience was limited to relatively small instruments like the 340’s 3/10 spec, I was out of my depth when it came specifying a larger organ than say, 15 ranks. Neil Jensen and Simon Gledhill came to my aid and created the new spec. I learned a great deal through that process. The console was respecified for 22 ranks.

My dream, since I was 15, was for a satin black console, and so, in 2006 the Rodgers console was refinished in satin black. This revamped Rodgers 340 console was excellent for controlling 22 ranks, and remained selectively useable for 27 (by using some tuned percussion tabs for ranks), but that was its limit - even with 42 lit pistons acting as stops (so 171 stops including the SAM driven tabs). I must admit that when the new spec was laid down, I had no idea how to use 22 ranks!In 2008 my friend of over 40 plus years, Tony Fenelon and his gorgeous wife, Noella, visited. Tony was so taken with the sound that he decided to record some tracks which were publicly released on my website.

Although the Rodgers conversion was successful, indeed, beyond expectations, after a couple of years, I found that I was moving on musically, and the expanded Rodgers console was now the limiting factor. I decided in late 2008 to commission a new dream console from master craftsman, Don Clark.However, it was still sad to have had to sell my Rodgers console. That console represented 100% work by me, the likes of which I had never before undertaken before in my life. And, it was a symbol of even more important sentimental reasons. But, the only way to fund the new console was to sell and a good home was found very quickly.The new double bolster three manual console's specification would be for 44 ranks. Neil developed this specification with some input myself (who could have imagined that just a few years before?). A name was decided on. The new console would be known as “Ruby”. A name synonymous in some circles with George Wright.While Ruby was being constructed by Don, I built a sound proof studio under my new house. Luckily the space was there (approx 12m x 6.1m x 2.2m) and has not one parallel surface, thereby making it an ideal target for conversion to use as a live music room. In previous homes, over decades, I had enjoyed the applause and encouragement of neighbours. But at one residence, in the 1990’s, a neighbour came knocking on the door when I was playing the piano to complain (with all doors and windows closed!). It only takes one complaint to ruin any enjoyment! Also for creative reasons it is a real luxury to enjoy privacy when playing, listening, or working. Once construction of the studio was complete, I then used my Roland RD700 piano and Tony Fenelon’s replay tracks to set up the 30 plus channels of audio.All of my audio is reflected. None is directly facing the listener. While my target outcome is always that of a tight ‘studio’ installation like that of Ron Wehmeier, or Mike Coup’s Miller Theatre organs, with some elements of Pasadena, I attempt to create some acoustic three dimensionality to the outcome. Sometimes this also follows the terraced rank layouts in a chamber in a front to back sense. Almost all major and colour reeds are located further to the rear of the ‘chamber’ area of the room and reflected from different angles in an attempt to recreate the pipe reality where reeds speak out of the resonator, and flues from the mouths.The console is about 2.5m from the nearest loudspeaker, and where the organist sits is about 1m onwards from where the sound all comes together as a completely mixed outcome. Gradually walking towards the ‘chamber’ and the different elements, which make up the mixed outcome quickly begin fall back into to their separate parts.In July 2009 on my 60th birthday, Ruby was delivered!The extra musical possibilities of the additional ranks - the gorgeous quieter ranks of the “Dolce” Division, and the Tuba Mirabilis at the opposite volume extreme; and in the "middle" (the extra Tibia and extra 2 sets of strings) quickly made the stress, time, effort and cost worthwhile. And, of course, Ruby is a work of art in herself. Don outdid himself.Since Ruby came into being I have been thrilled and privileged to have had Mark Herman, Neil Jensen, Brett Valliant, David Johnston, Scott Harrison, John Giacchi, Cameron Simpson, Simon Gledhill and many others visit to play and listen. Mark, Brett, and Simon all agreed to public releases of their performance tracks on my website. Due to Don’s console workmanship he has been praised by many as “the Australian Kenny Crome”.Despite my VTPO success, up until this year, I still believed that a residence pipe instrument was the only way to have that which I had always dreamed of. Not any more. While a VTPO will still never breathe with the life and presence of a pipe organ, what I now enjoy is moving closer and closer to my ideal, in terms of preparation, that after 47 years I have finally given up that 'pipedream'. It would require a team of staffers to keep the real thing working at Ruby’s ever improving level of preparation. Not forgetting the large store of alternative sets of pipes which would be required until the right outcome was arrived at. I can continue to change samples when, and as they become available. If needed. No storage required!

I hope that I have communicated that a VTPO project can be an immensely satisfying project on many levels. They are scalable, from headphones to two audio channels to as many audio channels that you might conceive! Yes, it can be frustrating beyond belief, often worse than pipes, when computers, or audio devices fail, but as one can crawl before one walks, you might find, as I have, that the skills that you learn on the way, provide you with the capacity to support yourself. It also helps to have a supportive wife, as Katie is.

Although anyone can have a satisfying Hauptwerk VTPO up and running in hours, if you want to improve it, there remains so much to learn about the intricacies of Hauptwerk, and samples, audio, terracing, voicing and trem regulation. Not unlike the real thing in many ways.I am greatly indebted to Jim Gallops, Simon Gledhill, Don Springer, John Andrews, as due to their skilled feedback "Ruby" continues to improve. Indeed, once again, samples are being shared. The support and insights of the others mentioned earlier in this article set the base from which to work. The creative and technical learning curves are exciting and rewarding if you want more than an ‘out-of-the-box’ instrument. The only hold up to Ruby's advancement these days is that very often I will sit down to do some more work, only to find that I have spent all of the available time playing!